“All uses of National Forest System lands, improvements, and resources … are designated “special uses.” Before engaging in a special use, persons or entities must submit an application to an authorized officer and must obtain a special use authorization from the authorized officer.”

– Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Section 251.50(a)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

– The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

This book takes up the story where the first volume of Rainbow Gatherings ends, in the autumn after the Montana national gathering in 2000, and continues thru ten more national gatherings until Tennessee in 2012.

These were years of confrontation with the law enforcement officers of the Forest Service over drugs brought in and group use permits not signed – years of blockades, vehicle searches, arrests, citations, mass court sessions, and sometimes violent altercations with injuries.

They were years of increased trust and cooperation with the resource management rangers, and development of operating plans to supplant the permit requirement.

And they were years when a new generation of gatherers came into play, wearing new and different colors.

This book covers most of the major incidents, many of which I was an eyewitness to:

the water trucks dumped and 4th of July on the forbidden west bank in Michigan,
Garrick signing the permit, the broken police car window, and the color guard in Utah
the Rainbow Crystal standoff and the Native American elders in California,
the rout at the front gate, the battle in the woods, and the parade down the hill in Colorado,
the skirmishes by the river in Arkansas,
and the Boy Scouts displaced and the Kid Village shootout in Wyoming.

This book also narrates many councils with the seven-ups, as well as most of the Vision Councils. All of this is done with the same attention to detail as the first book.

298 pages, 12 chapters, 117,000 words, with written music to 8 Rainbow chants